6:38 am: no babies.
7:45: BABIES. TWO SO FAR WILL POST MORE WHEN I CAN.
8:46: Four!
Updated 11:30: She seems to be holding at 4. Yes, that seems low given how big she got, but these kittens are big and healthy. It’s possible there are more in there, but I’m not feeling any movement in her belly, so I’m thinking not. I’ll update if any more show up, of course. Full birth story tomorrow (relatively drama-free, thankfully!)
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I don’t know. Will she ever have them? Will they be born fully grown and ready to go off to college? ARE there kittens or is she just exceptionally skilled at making her abdominal muscles move like kittens kicking? I DON’T KNOW. None of us know. All we can do is give her whatever she wants and hope she rewards us. Tomorrow, makes 13 days since she came to me, which might be the magic number, since both Emmy and Lucy waited 13 days.
As always, when I wake up this morning I will edit this post to reflect whether she had kittens overnight or not (I SUSPECT NOT.)
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It’s the first post in April, and if you are an organized calendar-page turner, you will find that the Anderson kitty calendar boy for April is…
Newt.
And the foster kitty calendar boy for April is…
Spruce, from the Evergreens.
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New Orleans: Randomness.
I have gone through the 1800 pictures I took in New Orleans when I was there two weeks ago with my sister, and have separated them into categories. Today’s pictures are random pictures of random things – that didn’t fit into any of the other categories.
Somehow, I didn’t take a picture of the hotel where we stayed. It was the Super 8 on Chef Menteur Highway. It was a perfectly lovely hotel, though for some reason they didn’t provide pictures of what was directly next door…
Oh look, it’s an abandoned building. A BIG one!
You should have seen Debbie’s face when we were driving toward our hotel and she thought the GPS was directing us to this place.
Beads hanging from a tree somewhere in the French Quarter.
Guy painted silver in Jackson Square. There was a lot to see in Jackson Square, and I only took a few pictures, I guess because I was too busy looking!
Poor kitty.
Boatcar in the French Quarter.
Except for one accidental, harrowing trip down Bourbon Street when we were trying to find a place to park, we spent most of our French Quarter time on Decatur Street.
I do not own a single hat, but when I’m on vacation I compulsively try on every hat I see. Wouldn’t I look fabulous wearing this while scooping the litter boxes?
(Tomorrow: Our trip to Villalobos.)
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Nola, your horns are showing. (Please note that she has her great big floofy tail flopped over my foot.)
Lordy, that belly.
::thlurrrp::
She’s a LAYDEE.
Oh, y’know. Just HANGING OUT IN THE LITTER BOX, making me worry that she’s going to give birth in a box of litter.
I have a Nest camera set up so that it’s pointed into the crate that I hope she’ll use when the time comes. I get an email every time there’s movement on the camera so that I can check out what’s going on. Well, Herself knocked the camera out of the way when she was looking in the crate, so it was pointed at the door when I walked in. A moment after I walked through the door, I got a notification saying “Your Birthin’ Crate camera noticed some Inside the crate activity,” along with this picture. The way the giraffe is laying there with hopeful “Got kittens?” eyes just cracks me UP. WE ALL WANT KITTENS, NOLA. WHY MUST YOU DENY US?
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Sheriff Mama, keeping an eye out for criminal activity.
Are you a songbird who thinks you’re going to land in our back yard and maybe STEAL worms from us, you THIEF? Well, you better THINK AGAIN, my friend. Not with the Sheriff on the job!
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Previously
2016: Not even 4 weeks old, and he’s got one litter box pee under his belt.
2015: Lucy’s Birth Story.
2014: Permanent Resident Throwback Thursday.
2013: Arnold is becoming quite the fluffmuffin.
2012: “You’re not touching my babies, are you? I KEEL YOU.”
2011: No entry.
2010: No entry.
2009: Someone said last week that Beulah looks like she’s in a space ship when she sits in the middle of the ball-track toy. She certainly does!
2008: No entry.
2007: “Oh, I’m not getting involved in this one!”
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
Jake made it on Cats, Beavers & Dukes!
http://catsbeaversandducks.tumblr.com/
Sheriff Mama is a riot! 🙂
Oh, the magnificent detail of Jake’s furs in that photo!
Its my birthday on Wednesday,if she has her kittens then (!!!!!!) you could call one of them after me,or if you think AfterMe is a silly name for a kitten my parents named me Marion.
There’s an April the Giraffe joke in there somewhere.
I was thinking the same thing.
She’s waiting for you to stop hanging over her demanding kittens. She’ll give birth in HER time, thank you.
Ah, a watched pot for our little beignets!
Nola…
So, do you think Sheriff Mama would go for wearing a uniform, like the one being worn by the New Orleans kitty?
(I so love that picture of Newt! Can it be placed in the favourite picture section?)
I think Robyn would be cut in her sleep for that!
Wow… seeing Sheriff Mama in action is impressive! That girl has amazing speed and incredible traction and is extremely good at camoflauge!
Yay kittens!!! Three so far as of 9:15am, pics on the Facebook page.
I would’ve given a lot of money to see your sister’s face when she saw that burned out hotel.
Did someone say kittens?
Looks kinda like a cross between Sheriff-y activity and training for american ninja warrior.
Go Sheriff Mama!
Hit FB before coming here and it is evident she is messing with you!!
Many congratulations to Nola — and Robyn. What a wonderful post (as always), and that vid of Sheriff Mama is tremendous! So glad she’s keeping everyone safe from marauders.
sheriff Mama is one cool kitty. Love the prompt action to keep the property clear of unwanted varmints !!!
Nola looks a little shell-shocked!
“Holy crap! What was that? What are these? What are THEY doing????”
I know everyone’s excited about the kittens (I am too!) but because I know you love it when your readers dream about you…
Backstory: I’ve been re-reading your archives (from Emmy & the Noms on) over the last couple of weeks, and I’m currently in fall 2015 (that HORRIBLE year–cried all over again every single time someone died, even though I knew it was coming) when you had THREE sets of kittens at the same time (SquashBugs, Swimmers, and the as-yet-unnamed pair).
The dream: I dreamed that you and I were going on a trip together, but 3 sets of kittens (including bottle babies) was too many to leave with Fred, so you decided to bring one litter with us on the trip. We kept having to stop so you could feed them, and it was hard to find a hotel willing to let us bring in a whole brood of kittens. Hijinks ensued.
I wish I had dreams like that Erin. It sounds like a great trip!
Happy dance:-) Can’t wait for more photos!
see.. just when you least expect it.. poof! kittens
🙂
I’ve been meaning to post this kitten name suggestion: Crawdad or Crawdaddy for the largest boy kitten!
Yay for kittens! I’ve been status checking quite obsessively. You go, Nola!
Oh, such a lovely mama and babies! I wish I could just sit there in the room and admire them.
I will always wonder if my Zelda had been a mama before we met, since she was a shelter kitty with very little backstory. She’d have had a lovely assortment herself, I’m sure, being a tortie.
Eeeeee kittoons EEEEE! Evidently there are facebook pics, but I don’t do the facebook thing – torties? Orangey tigers? Torbies? Tiny floofy longhair tortie? MALE CALICO?
Congratulations Robyn, Nola, and the awwwwwww-some foursome.
One mini-me, one orange tabby, one grey tabby, and on B&W tuxie (which I thought was really a dark grey tabby because I thought it had stripes).